Belligerent Fisherman's Trial Starts

Marshall Wilson, Chronicle South Bay Bureau

Published 4:00 am, Friday, November 1, 1996

A jury in San Jose yesterday heard tapes of defiant fisherman Jim Blaes telling the Coast Guard to "go act like Nazis somewhere else" in the opening day of his trial stemming from May's incident in which he strapped on a pistol and refused to let a boarding party aboard his boat.

The 51-year-old Morro Bay fisherman faces federal charges of assault and resisting, impeding and intimidating federal officers in the standoff at sea that began May 19. Blaes provoked a national debate on the powers of the federal government and gained support from fellow fishermen when he refused to let a Coast Guard crew aboard his boat for a routine safety inspection.

No one was hurt in the confrontation, which ended when the Coast Guard stopped trailing Blaes and his boat the Helja and allowed him to return to dock four days after it began.

In tapes of radio conversations, Blaes is heard repeatedly telling the Coast Guard to leave him alone and accusing the government of violating his civil rights.

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"You're going to have to shoot me and you're going to have to shoot to kill to come aboard," he is heard saying in a scratchy recording.

"The American government has been killing people right and left and you're not going to get me. You're not going to get me," he said at another point.

Outside of court, Blaes -- his graying hair pulled back in a pony tail and wearing suspenders, blue jeans and cowboy boots -- said he was afraid for his life to let armed Coast Guard crewmen on board because of "bad blood" between him and the agency. He said he offered to let a lone, unarmed crewman aboard to search his vessel but was rebuffed.

Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander William Lee testified that it is against Coast Guard policy to send a lone person aboard a vessel. Petty Officer Phillip Rolfe testified that a search of computer records showed the agency had had no contact with Blaes during the previous three years.

The trial resumes today in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge William Ingram.